Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, January 4, 2005

Photo: KEVIN FRAYER

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Israeli settler girls cry in the mud after being dragged away by Israeli army soldiers dismantling an illegal structure at an outpost outside the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar, near the West Bank town of Nablus, Monday, Jan 3, 2005. Some 100 settlers who came from other settlements confronted police and army trying to evacuate two caravans from the illegal outpost while Jewish settler leaders warned that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of soldiers could refuse to carry out orders to evict Gaza Strip settlers, a sign of the difficulties the army could face in carrying out the Gaza withdrawal planned by Prime Minister Sharon. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) less

Israeli settler girls cry in the mud after being dragged away by Israeli army soldiers dismantling an illegal structure at an outpost outside the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar, near the West Bank town of Nablus, ... more

2005-01-04 04:00:00 PDT Jerusalem -- Jewish settlers began a new round of protests Monday and warned that large numbers of Israeli soldiers could refuse to follow orders to remove settlers from the Gaza Strip later this year.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who wants to carry out the Gaza withdrawal this summer, said the government would prosecute soldiers who disobeyed orders. "I don't think that a soldier can refuse an order," Sharon told a group of young Jewish adults visiting from the United States and other countries. "I see no justification for refusal, not by soldiers, nor by political leaders, nor by rabbis."

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"The law will be upheld," he added.

Sharon is trying to revamp his coalition government so he will have a solid majority in parliament as he proceeds with his plan to evacuate all 8, 000 settlers from Gaza, as well as several hundred residents of four small settlements in the West Bank.

However, the settlers are stepping up their protest efforts and have been raising the prospect that Israeli soldiers will refuse to take part in a withdrawal.

The Israeli security forces are taking the warning seriously, and senior defense officials met with settler leaders Sunday to discuss the issue.

"I have to be honest with the heads of the army about where the implementation of this draconian law will lead," a settler leader, Pinchas Wallerstein, told army radio on Monday.

He suggested that there could be "dozens, or hundreds, or thousands" of soldiers refusing orders.

Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim urged settler leaders to act responsibly and not to encourage insubordination in the military.

"If this is the picture, then it will be a very difficult scene, so difficult it is possible we won't be able to implement" the withdrawal, Boim told Israel radio.

Hundreds of settlers, most of them students, began protesting on a cold and rainy day outside Israel's parliament in Jerusalem. The demonstrators brought sleeping bags and set up tents with the intention of eating, sleeping and protesting outside the building for the next three weeks, they said.

Also, several dozen settlers threw stones and scuffled with Israeli security force members as they removed two mobile homes from an unauthorized settlement outpost in the West Bank, near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

The security forces eventually detained 15 settlers for questioning at the outpost, near the formal settlement of Yitzhar. In addition, the police arrested an off-duty soldier who showed up at the protest in his army uniform and called on fellow soldiers to disobey orders to clear out the settlements.

Under the Middle East peace plan, which has been almost completely dormant for well over a year, Israel is required to remove all unauthorized outposts, most of which consist of a few mobile homes on barren hilltops.

Peace Now, an Israeli monitoring group, says there are 50 or more such outposts that should be removed under the peace plan, while the Israeli government has put the number at fewer than 30.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas, the favorite in Sunday's Palestinian presidential election, promised Palestinian refugees they'll be able to return home one day -- his most explicit comment yet on an explosive issue that has derailed peace talks in the past.

"We will never forget the rights of the refugees, and we will never forget their suffering. They will eventually gain their rights, and the day will come when the refugees return home," Abbas told a cheering crowd Monday in Gaza City.

Abbas, however, is still far too moderate for the militant group Hamas, which demanded that he apologize for requesting a halt to rocket attacks against Israel.

For the second day in a row, Abbas said Palestinian factions should stop firing rockets at Israel, saying they were ineffective and often prompted Israeli military raids.

"Someone asked me today about my opinion on the rocket attacks. I replied that I condemn them, regardless of who is responsible," Abbas said in Gaza City, Agence France-Presse reported. "Experience has shown that they usually fall in the desert or on our houses, killing our children."

Abbas, however, said he would not begin a crackdown against Palestinian militants.

"Palestinians taking up arms against each other will not happen," he said while campaigning in Gaza.